The List

Whew. It feels like it has been years since my last post. With moving and trying to get settled and everything set up, my life has just been way too crazy to spend time writing. But, that also means I have a lot of catching up to do. However, I would first like to introduce everyone to the list. After being in Lincoln for almost a week, I have already created a little list of likes and dislikes.

Things I like about Nebraska:

1. Everybody looks like a farmer. David thinks I'm crazy for listing this as one of my 'likes,' but it's true. It makes me feel that much closer to home.
2. People are nice (of course, Nebraska doesn't have Chicago to deal with, so that may make it easier for Nebraska people to be nicer).
3. Chivalry isn't dead here...i.e. boys open doors, say hello and smile at you.
4. Downtown Lincoln is actually more like downtown Champaign - super nice and slow-moving.
5. I haven't been eaten alive by the Cornhusker fans when I wear an Illinois t-shirt (and I have A LOT of Illini t-shirts).
6. I'm only three hours away from my best good friend.
7. State cops in Nebraska drive big pick-up trucks. Seriously, it's awesome (mostly because nobody in Nebraska moves fast enough to outrun a pick-up).

Things I'm not so crazy about:

1. I'm now 8 hours away from home.
2. I'm now 8 hours away from David.
3. I don't know anyone.
4. I had to buy a new washer because my old one leaked (not necessarily a product of living in Nebraska, but this whole moving thing is really expensive...).
5. Tornadoes. Seriously, I haven't even been here a full week and today they're calling for the worst storms of the season and for those storms to continue on through the evening.
5b. I live on the third floor of my apartment complex. There is no basement.
6. Everywhere I go all I see is a sea of red Nebraska clothing and no orange and blue.
7. I like the cops and pick-up trucks. I don't like the amazing multitude of them. Yikes.

That's the list. Look for it to be added to as time goes on. Anyway...as for everything else. Rachel called me yesterday and wanted to know if I wanted to drive over to Ames tomorrow and go down to Quincy with her for a wedding this weekend. I would really love to, but I just can't seem to make up my mind. I just want to make sure that I'll be able to get home in good time on Sunday night because I have to be at work at 8:30 on Monday morning. It would be nice to go and see everyone, though.

I'm all moved into my apartment. David stayed until Tuesday and helped me get everything put away and re-arranged. After we got everything put where we wanted it, I really liked the apartment and the way it's set up. I have a cute little den and a nice open living room. I also have a huge bathroom and laundry room. The kitchen is a little small but I was able to make everything work.




After David got home, he got a call from Noah (the guy with the job in CU). Noah finally offered the job to David and he has to start next Thursday. I'm hoping that this job will be a good opportunity for him and will open some doors for him here in Nebraska. He's really been struggling to find something out here and I know that's really irritating to him.

I suppose that's it for now. I've got some traveling to do coming up here pretty quickly, so I can't promise this is going to be updated as frequently as before. But, I promise I'll try!

Yikes!

Oh my gosh. I have so much that I need to get done in so little time.

The plan is to start packing when I get home today. I'm moving on Thursday so, I need to go through all of my stuff and start throwing things away that I don't need anymore. The apartment I'm moving to is actually smaller than the one I'm in now, so I need to try and clear out as much junk as possible.

And, today is my last day at the soybean lab. I'll miss everyone here - they've all been so nice and so flexible with a student's schedule. Anyway, I have to work until 5 tonight. After that I need to run some errands, but after I get home I'm going to work on cleaning out some of my clothes and trying to pull out some things that I know I'm going to want to go out to Nebraska with me and not in the moving truck.

David and I are one step closer to the wedding: we had our engagement pictures done on Thursday. It was the first time we had met out photographer and I really liked her. She works out of Bloomington, so she took us to a park out there and took our pictures.

I'm really excited to see the pictures; it was really overcast on Thursday, but the park was pretty and she seemed like she really knew what she was doing. It didn't take her anytime at all to get us all set up and snap a few shots. I bet we were only there for about 25 minutes, which was wonderful because we had some other errands to run while we were in Bloomington.

For example...couch shopping! My mom has been trying to find us a couch for awhile, but we just haven't been able to find anything. So, Denise said that's what she wanted to get us for graduation - a new couch. So, while we were in Bloomington, Denise met us at SofaMart and we did a little browsing. But, there just wasn't anything I was too impressed with. We decided we'll look in Champaign - hopefully before I have to leave - to see if we can find something.

Back on the list of things that need done...

I need to get started on packing and cleaning. I also need to call the caterer and see if I can get plates and a menu lined out. Then, before I leave I need to run down to Lincoln (Illinois) and see if I can get some things with the flowers finalized. At least pick out the flowers I want and give them the swatch of fabric so they know what color the flowers need to be. I also need to get some pictures picked out so Denise can do the video of David and I if she wants to. Oh, Oh...and I need to fill out a change of address form and call and transfer the cable, water and electricity and call my lanlord in Nebraska and let her know when we'll be there and call and set up my internet out there. Geesh. I'm sure there's a lot more that needs added to the list that I have just forgotten about...Yikes.

Off to the real world...

It's finally over: graduation. I didn't go through mine, but that doesn't mean that I won't get a diploma. David's graduation was this weekend, too. I drove up to Macomb with his brother and sister-in-law and his parents to see him go through his. Then, on Sunday, we had a little graduation party for him. Before I went to David's graduation party I drove out to Aunt Nancy's for a little Mother's Day celebration. I think I suprised everyone showing up unannounced, but I didn't think they would care anyway. It was nice to see everyone together before I have to leave.

All in all, it was a nice, long weekend. David and I spent most of Saturday, Sunday and Monday playing with his nieces Eileen and Elise. They are just too cute. And, of course, they have just got their Uncle Dave wrapped around their little fingers. They could start a nuclear war and he'd be proud of them for organizing it.

I needed to head back to Champaign on Monday night for work the next morning, so David went back with me. The internet is out at his house and we have our engagement pictures on Thursday morning, so it just made sense for him to head back with me. Plus, with his plans still a little up in the air, it will give us a chance to spend a little bit of time together before I have to leave.

I'm really anxious to get out to Nebraska and just get settled. There's so much that needs to be done just so I can get moved. And, then there's the wedding stuff that needs to be done before I leave. It just makes me so tired! Oh well. Hopefully I can get a bunch of stuff done this week and next week and then I won't have to worry about it anymore.

I can't think of anything else too new and exciting. I have to pick up my wedding dress on Wednesday then I'm headed home for the weekend because mom wanted to take David and I out for dinner for graduation. I love going out for meals...especially when I don't have to pay!

I'm in love...

With my new car, that is. Seriously, it's fabulous. I've never had a new car before, so driving this thing around has been a dream...and a little bit of a nightmare. I'm so worried someone is going to pull out in front of me or back into my car. Anyway, I was going to put a picture up, but it's been raining for the past two days, so that will have to wait.

You know me, I love the rain, but with the amount we've had this spring I'm not sure the farmers are ever going to be able to get in the fields and get everything planted.

In other news...I finally got my website done for Journ 480! It's so nice to have that all handed in and finished. If you'd like to check it out, go to:

http://viewport.comm.uiuc.edu/mmstudents/rbaum

Hopefully my professor will have it all up and running by this evening. I also finished my last final this morning and that means I'm officially done FOREVER! I'm so excited to not have homework when I go home tonight. After work, I'm just going to sit on my couch and watch TV for as long as I want to!

I can't think of anything else for right now - other than David's (my David, now) graduation is this weekend. I'm going to drive up to Macomb with David's parents and his brother and sister-in-law for his graduation. Then, he's having a graduation party on Sunday. So, that will be fun. Then, hopefully sometime next week, we need to get our engagement pictures taken. I hope our photographer can set me up in a way I look 100 pounds lighter.

Redemption!

After a couple of pretty crummy days, life just got a little brighter!

First things first: I got a new car! Well, I don't have it in my hot little hands just yet, but I'm hoping to pick it up by the middle of the week. Now, take a seat if you aren't sitting already...I bought a NEW car. For those of you that know me, you thinking, "You mean, you bought something that already has about 50,000 miles on it?" No. It has ZERO miles (well, almost zero - like, 225 or something). I'm buying a 2008 Chevy Malibu - and this car is seriously BA. I'm so excited - I've never had a new car before. It's a little scary, too, because I don't want anything to happen to it. The poor little Monte Carlo I have now is all beat-up and bruised and I definitely don't want anything to happen to a new car. I suppose the good thing is I'll be living in a place that isn't a college campus, and hopefully that will take some of the risk away!

I was at the dealership most of the morning because when I got there, Grandma Margie and Grandpa Dick were there. So, before I started looking at cars mom, Scott and I went out to lunch with grandma and grandpa. It was great to catch up with them - I hadn't seen them in a while because they spent their winter down in Florida. And, as always, any meal with them was entertaining.

So, after lunch and then doing some test-driving, I drove home and visited the farm and the other grandparents. I took some more pictures for my project and then just spent some time chit-chatting.

Finally, I headed home and took some pictures on my own farm! Most of our 2008 babies are on the ground and I hadn't been home to see them yet, so I headed out to the barn, camera in hand of course, and played with the babies for an hour or so. Mom and Janell were outside so I got caught-up on all of the recent farm happenings - who cut their leg and who we have to breed and who we're trying to sell. And, yes, you're right. We never had a normal dinner conversation during our family dinners.

Since Janell and I were both home, mom and Chuck took us out for dinner in Lincoln (Guzzardo's - YUMMY!) and by the time we got home, the day was pretty much spent.

Sunday morning I got up at 3:30 (otherwise known as the buttcrack of dawn) to drive up to Sterling for the horse show. And, for the first time in HISTORY (probably not, but for dramatic reasons we'll just leave it that way) we were done with a paint show early - I was headed home by 7 which was absolutely wonderful.

So, like I said, after a crappy week last week, this weekend was wonderful! I'm hoping this week will be a little more laid-back and easy-going. It's finals week (FINALLY!) and that means I don't have to go to class. Thankfully, I only have one more test and one more project to go and I'll be done forever!

Bad news bears...

No, not the movie. That's just what I always say when something doesn't work out the way it's supposed to - and I was saying it a lot today. David called me this morning at about 9:30 and told me he got a call from the newspaper in Aurora - he didn't get the job. They literally told him he was the most qualified candidate they interviewed. They said he had the most experience and they felt he would do the best job, but they were afraid Lincoln was too far away from Aurora. And, it doesn't matter that we're planning on moving closer to Aurora - they still thought it would be too far away. Needless to say, we had a lousy morning.

I was so excited about starting to look for houses (I found some really cute ones in York), but now, we don't even know if David will be moving out to Nebraska with me when I move at the end of May. He thought he might actually stay here in Illinois and try to work for a publishing company and then move out to Nebraska after we get married.

Of course, that's okay. But, we've never been that far away from each other before - and, it will be harder to pay the bills, especially since we were planning on having two paychecks when we picked out our apartment. I suppose it's like mom said, "Honey, everything happens for a reason. No matter how it ends up, it will work out for the best in the end." I sure hope she's right...

So, David and I spent today looking for new jobs out in Nebraska. We found a couple, but who knows if he will get any calls back and if it will be soon enough for him to move out to Lincoln with me. It's just one of those things that makes me so angry. I know how hard he works and how smart and talented he is, and if a company would just give him a shot - even if it's something that he doesn't have a lot of experience in - they'll have an employee they'll never want to let go.

The only things that redeemed the day? Friends and cars. First, the friends. Bethany and Jessica came over tonight to watch Grey's with me. My "best good friend" Rachel was here in spirit - rehashing all of the Grey's happenings online. After that was over Jessica, Bethany and I spent the rest of the evening watching useless TV and catching up - it was wonderful. Living out of the sorority, I don't get to see them as often as I used to and I miss it. I miss the totally random conversations we used have and the crazy things we used get away with. I hope the two of them can find some time to come out to Nebraska and visit me - I might just get lonely without them.

Now for the car part. After talking with mom and Uncle Scott, it seems like the sensible thing to do to buy a newer car before I head out to Nebraska. After having to fix mine several times in the last month, I dont want to get stuck out in Nebraska with a car that doesn't work. And, my sister, Janell, has such a nice car. Mom and I thought maybe we could talk her into putting her car into storage and taking my car to school - especially since mine is already dented and banged up. Or, at least mom and Chuck could take my car and use it to drive back and forth to their shop instead of putting the miles on their newer cars. Anyway, I'm going to go home this weekend to take more pictures of the farm and go to the horse show on Sunday, but Saturday, I get to go into the dealership and look for a car. I found an HHR that I really like with under 10,000 miles on it, but I'm not sure I can afford it. I need to talk to mom and Scott to see if we can come up with some numbers and see if I can afford the monthly payments....I sure hope so!

I guess I had better close for the evening. At least I can look forward to tomorrow - it's Friday!